Mum says she’s astounded after receiving ‘threatening’ parking fine

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A mum-of-two has been left ‘astounded’ after receiving a ‘threatening’ parking fine, for a car park stay she claims she paid for.

Sarah Singleton received a £50 fine after parking in the Montague Centre Car Park in Liverpool Gardens, Worthing, on January 8, when she popped into the town centre to buy a new mobile phone.

The 42-year-old mum-of-two is the latest in a spate of motorists to express their anger at CP Plus, which operates the car park.

She said: “I am completely astounded that CP Plus can run faulty parking machines and then try and make the public pay extortionate fines for their mistakes. I paid the amount requested which was 50p and there was no option to amend it, you pay what it tells you.

“I can only assume that the machine cannot have been working properly and charged me the wrong amount, but when I sent the receipt with my appeal, assuming it was obvious that I had paid, the appeal was rejected.”

Sarah, of Roman Avenue, Angmering, who was travelling with her children at the time, has appealed to POPLA (Parking On Private Land Appeals) since receiving the fine as she was aware of others experiencing the same problem at the car park.

She said: “I refuse to pay it and I think it’s appalling that CP Plus have been behaving badly for such a long time and are able to continue to do so.

“They call it a Parking Charge Notice instead of the official Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) and frighten people into thinking that should pay them it, but actually they don’t have any power to enforce it, or use any debt recovery as part of their process, so I am waiting to hear what POPLA say, but am hoping that will be the last of it.”

Dozens of drivers have previously contacted the Herald and Gazette, concerned about the car park, with some users claiming its system ‘does not work’.

A spokesman from CP Plus said: “We understand the inconvenience of receiving a PCN, however the motorist not only paid for 30 minutes and stayed for more than an hour and a half – but also typed the wrong registration number. Last year there were some minor data problems but these were addressed, and we have not had any issues for many months.”